


15 Seconds

by Stop_Klancing_Around



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Angst with a Happy Ending, Hurt Keith (Voltron), M/M, Mild Language, Post-Season/Series 02
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-07-13
Updated: 2018-07-13
Packaged: 2019-06-09 17:48:46
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,156
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15272928
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Stop_Klancing_Around/pseuds/Stop_Klancing_Around
Summary: 'It was today that Coran calls Keith and Lance over to do something outside the castle. Keith would like to sleep but paladins work is first huh. He was leaning heavily in the wall while Coran and Lance spoke.“So what are we doing again?” Lance asks Coran'Keith and Lance are to do maintenance work outside the castle when the airlock opens.





	15 Seconds

**Author's Note:**

> It's Cas again, with angst.  
> There are a few things I want to mention before you read this:  
> If this fic looks and reads familiar to you, it because it is.  
> This is the good ending of [this fic](https://archiveofourown.org/works/15203747) and there is actual Klance in this. 
> 
> Lastly, a special Thank You to [Ray](http://raythenerdyfangirl.tumblr.com) for betaing and crying with me through this fic.
> 
> I held you up long enough. Enjoy :)

Things have been very hectic ever since Shiro disappeared. Keith workload has increased dramatically. Between finding Shiro in the rubble of their last fight with Zarkon, leading an entire team of paladins, and training, Keith doesn’t have any time for himself. 

Lately, he's been running himself down to the bone and everyone has started to take notice. Including Lance of all things. Allura tends to end their training sessions earlier than normal for Keith to relax or sleep. Keith doesn’t. Hunk puts a lot more food on his plate in favor of him to eat more. Keith eats barely half the plate before he's out of the mess hall and into the Black lion in search of Shiro. Pidge starts talking to him more so that he can talk about what's been happening for the past few months. Keith’s mind has been doing accidental backflips behind Pidge’s hair. Lance had gone through such lengths with not putting any more stress on Keith and even begin talking to Keith with a soft voice. Keith was grateful for that because isn't sure how much of this black paladin thing can he handle. Everything is starting to get difficult for Keith to handle.

After a few weeks, Keith looks like he's been cruising with death. His eyes were giving birth to dark bags, he's snappier than usual, and his ribs began to poke out to say hello. Keith has been getting tired out after the first 30 minutes of training and his mind began to dream of finding Shiro in midst of diplomat meetings.

It was today that Coran calls Keith and Lance over to do something outside the castle. Keith would like to sleep but paladins work is first huh. He was leaning heavily in the wall while Coran and Lance spoke.

“So what are we doing again?” Lance asks Coran

“Oh, you lot are to change some of the wirings on the black section of the castle of the lions,” Coran said

“Why can’t Pidge do it? They can do that with much more efficiency than the both of us.” Keith said. He began to rub his eyes. He doesn't want to deal with this today, let alone right now. Lance and Coran notice the yawns and tiny sways of left and right but keeps silent about it. Keith would probably deny any action of it.

“I agree with Keith on this one. Both Pidge and Hunk would be great candidates for this job. Why us?” Lance asks

“Pidge and Hunk are working on recoding the altean library to collect data while the castle is idle. Pidge says that the upgrade would make the library run efficiently on retaining and updating data.” Coran said.

“Figures. I’m guessing that you would be guiding us through?” Lance said.

“Yes, number 3.” With that, Coran walks off, leaving Keith and Lance to their own devices. Keith begins to go to the locker room where all of their paladin suits are while Lance tails him. Since it's just maintenance work, the both of them opted to go out with their action suits because it was less bulky. 

Lance looks at Keith a long look and sighs.

“Keith, are you okay?”

“Yes”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes”

“Keith, please look at yourself. You look like shit and will be in deep shit if you keep up at the pace that you are going.”

“Lance can we not start this. Please. I don’t have time for this.”

“Why not? We have all of the time in space.”

“Because I don’t have the patience for it. Drop it.” Keith begins to walk out of the locker room with his helmet perched on his hip. Lance walks with him.

“Your health is on the line and you don’t want to talk about it. That’s real rich.”

“Okay, so why do you care?” Lance stopped walking and really looks at Keith. He kept going until he stopped in front of airlock 12.

“Your joking right? Keith, we've been dating for the past few weeks. Why the hell wouldn’t I care? Care to explain that to me?” Keith turns to Lance to see the hurt eradicating from his face.

'fuck’ Keith thinks. He didn't think that phrase would come out of his mouth but, it did. He wants to apologize to Lance but everything has been going to fast that it's turning into mush and he can't find the letters to piece them together to send them out of his brain and to his mouth.

The tired look that Keith was giving out was strong enough to touch Lance with a rough slap. All Lance wants to do is to give this boy a damn nap and take care of him until Keith was able to haul Hunk around the castle with vigor. Keith, on the other hand, was not having any of it.

“I wish I could joke.” Lance physically flinches at that and all Keith wants to do now is to grab all of those words and take it all back. 

“You do know that there are people here that would care if you got sucked out of an airlock, God forbid. People like me for instance”

“And so what does that anything to do with my health?”

“Do you not hear the words that are coming out of your mouth? The fuck is wrong with you? Do you not care about yourself at all?” 

“Until I find Shiro I can’t rest. I don’t care if its a strand of hair or a piece of him. Just SOMETHING to prove that he didn’t make a good ass fucking Houdini trick in SPACE.” 

‘Keith, WE all are doing our best to look for Shiro. You are not the only one”

“It sure feels like it.” 

‘Fuck, Keith, what are you doing. Apologise to him. Don't make this worse. Please for once in your life do something right’ Keith thinks. He begins to apologize but, it chokes in his throat when Lance begins to unload all the things he promised never to do all over Keith. 

“Fuck you, Keith. I thought that you would at least give a damn about anything here but, you only care about yourself per usual.”

Their argument picks up steam from there. The volume has increased, and they began to throw verbal bullets at each other. It had gotten to the point where Lance didn’t hear Coran’s fearful voice pleading him to listen and to back away from airlock 12 because it had malfunctioned. Or Keith didn’t see the lights flashing desperately to get his attention to run or find cover. The airlock alarms begin to scream, shaking the both of them out of the argument to address the situation. Airlock 12 began to open its door and Lance felt the dread seep into his skin and the sheer terror that clutched his stomach and heart as he looks at Keith. Keith wasn’t wearing his helmet. It seem that God didn’t heed the last part of Lance’s sentence.

“WAIT, DON’T OPEN THE AIRLOCK” It was a second too late as the alarms blare out of the door. Everything seemed to be placed of fast forward after that. Lance begins to sprint towards Keith in a futile attempt to pull him out of the way, but he was just a foot too late. Keith was too shaken by the lights and sound that his forgotten helmet was in his hands when he was ripped out of the castle with the only emotion that was sloppily slapped on his face. Panic 

15

Keith was floating among the stars and drifting quickly away from the castle.

14

“If you were to catch yourself outside of space without a suit, God forbid, don’t hold your breath, Expel all of the air out of your lungs before your lungs rupture.” For once in his life, Keith didn’t expect to hear Iverson in a grim time but was thankful none of the less.

13

Keith looks wildly for his helmet when he sees it to the left of his hand. He begins to reach frantically to his helmet, but it was just out his reach. He would curse out if it wasn't for the vacuum trying to rip his head from his body. Keith silently thanks the action suit.

12

It's eerily silent its space. Nothing is here to hear Keith’s cries of help if he could manage. The castle seems small now. 

‘Everything burns’ Keith thought but, he feels extremely cold. He wants to close his eyes to stop the burning but fears that he will never be able to open them again

 

11

For the longest second, it felt like his mother was looking at him at distance. His dad was holding Keith as his mother yells out towards them that she will be back with a bigger ship to take all three of them into the great blue sky. She never came back after that day and after a year later, his dad never came back from work either.

10

Since Keith’s chances of surviving this are growing smaller he begins to thank everyone. Starting with Coran for being the best uncle he never had and his effort at being a guiding light as a paladin. 

9

To Allura, thank you for accepting my other half. I probably wouldn’t if you didn’t

8

To Hunk, even though we barely talk to each other, thank you for just being here with us. If it wasn’t for you, I would be sitting in my own self-hate towards my other half.

7

Pidge, to be honest, thank God you didn’t leave Voltron. All of the memories I shared with you was worth it. Say hi to Matt for me.

6

Shiro, thank you for believing in me when the odds were against my favor. If it wasn’t for you, I wouldn’t be here and/or probably in this situation looking for you.

5

Lance thank you for helping me. Take care of Red and the rest of the paladins for me. I am so sorry that this would be the last memory of us.

4

Keith’s vision slowly begins to fade out. At the corner of his eye, he sees Lance to the left of him. Speak of the devil, Keith thought. He sees Lance throws his bayard to his helmet. Keith wanted to tell him not to do it because he will lose the Red Bayard. He didn’t really see the where the bayard will collide with.

3

The bayard softly connects with Keith’s helmet and it gives it enough momentum to brush Keith’s palm. Keith's eyes widened as he felt the helmet. He makes a grab for the helmet and struggles to put it on but his limbs are not comprehending. Lance at this point has already gotten to Keith and helps him puts the helmet.

2

Communications are back online and every single scream from the castle are making an atrocious tune in his helmet. The first time that Keith was grateful for.

1

Red is running towards them with such speeds and swallows them in fear that it would lose both its paladins.

0

Keith finally takes his first breath 

 

Or at least tries to take as much air as possible but his lungs aren’t cooperating. 

“Sss cld” Keith manages to rasp out. Lance begins to hold Keith tightly, trying to give him all of the warmth that his body could give. Keith’s ears are still ringing from the lack of sound and he feels cold in his action suit. With all screams of the other paladins, the machinery in red was working on getting them back while red sending calming energy to his distraught state, and his suit was starting to feel both an uncomfortable second skin and the warmest thing to him; Keith just wanted out of this overload. By the time the both of them are back in the castle, Keith had turned off his coms and turn on the noise canceling setting while shivering violently. He just wants everything to be quiet for just a second while he gets his bearings. 

Lance hasn’t let go ever since Red caught them floating amongst the stars. When Red lands safely into their hanger, Lance picks Keith up from the floor and books it towards the Med Bay while whispering sweet nothings into the shivering Keith. He brushes past the other paladins in such a hurry. 

“Just get to the healing pods and everything will be fine,” was Lance’s broken mantra when he was bolting to the med bay with the other paladins hot at his tail. He arrives just as Coran is ushering him to put Keith in a pod.

“Wait, don’t we need to put a cryo-suit on him”

“There is no time to change him, he needs to go in. Now. The action suit will be a substitute for a cryo-suit.” They place him inside after removing the helmet and closes the pod. Keith looks completely out of it, his hair was all over the place and his skin was ashen with a splash of blue where his nose and lips are. After a few seconds, Keith falls into a restless sleep while Lance watches. It takes Lance a few ticks to finally speak into the tense silence.

“So how long would he need be in there,” Lance asked

“The pods will only take care with the damages that were caused by the vacuum. It will not, however, take care with the hypothermia. “ Coran said. Lance takes his eyes away from the pod and faces Coran.

“Coran, I’m asking how long, not what the pod will do.”

“I’m not sure since his body is in a poor state. Putting him in the pods would put Keith in grave danger if he put in the pod for more than three vargas.” There was a sour taste in the room when Coran finished that statement. Grim faces stared at the pod while thinking about another way to help Keith.

“Then why not reverse the cooling process?” Pidge speaks up after silence became unbearable to them.

“Explain?” Hunk asked

“The pods also place the user in a cryo-sleep. I can recode it so that its a steady rise of heat after the three varga mark” 

“Wouldn’t that defeat the purpose of the healing pod? The body needs to be cooled down to at least 95 degrees or less in order for the healing to take place. Plus, Keith could probably wake up in the process and that is NOT good”

“From what the pod is reading, Keith’s core body temperature is already at 80 degrees. I can program it so that it can warm him up to 95 degrees and to keep that temperature while healing him. Plus, he has hypoxia as of late and other shit that his body has to deal with. To the pod, space has already done what it would take at least 20 doboshes to do.” 

“Would that mean that the pod could super heal Keith? Possibly cutting the healing process in half” Allura speaks up. 

“I don’t think so and I hope not. As Coran said, his body is already in bad shape from the jump. If the pod was to do that then it could pose a threat to Keith's overall being. His body will not be able to handle all of the rapid changes that the pod is dealing with him.” Hunk said.

“So what would that mean?” Lance said.

“In this state, if the pod decides to super heal Keith because of his core temperature reading, he could suffer either a massive heart attack, brain failure, organ failure, or all three at the same time,” Pidge said. The room goes quiet after that. Pidge and Hunk begin to wonder if talking about this in front of Lance is the best thing as of now. Especially, since Lance is dating Keith. 

“We need to get started with that now. We can’t lose any more time than we have now.” Hunk and Pidge quickly run out of the med bay, only for them to come back with tech gear and cables. Pidge jacks a few cables from her laptop and tablets into the pod’s ports and began to furiously recode the pod. Hunk does the same with Pidge while suggesting areas to recode. Coran walks over to them and gives them pointers and translations to what certain things were while bringing out a defibrillator like cubes near the pods. 'Just in case’ he mumbles. Allura has already left to tend to the ship before saying to keep her posted on Keith’s condition. 

Lance, on the other hand, is not having the best time of his life. Regret began to pool in his stomach. Of course, they have a nasty fight. Of fucking course that the airlock malfunction while he was hurling the worse things to Keith. It had to be Keith. Keith who had suffered enough would think that the universe would calm down for just a second decides to prove him wrong time and time again. Lance just wishes that he didn’t start that conversation at that point in time. Now he has to watch Keith either live or wither away from his very own eyes. 

It hasn't been a full varga after Pidge and Hunk rapid coding to save Keith when the pods began to shriek. 

“No, nononono NO! Why is it do that? Hunk we need to find a way to rework the altean healing programming. It's rising to 110%”

“We can’t do it while he’s in there. If we try to change one thi-” 

“We can’t lose him, Hunk, we just can’t. It’s like losing Matt all over again and I don’t want a repeat of that.” Pidge looks at Hunk with tearful eyes. 

‘At this rate, we need to take him out and find an alternative while the both of you find a way to fix that.” Coran said. He and Hunk takes Keith out of the pods and lays him down on a stretcher and moves him through the halls of the castle and into a large, humid room. Keith at this point looks like death with his skin color looks bluer than the pale that Lance came to love. Hunk mentions that he wasn’t breathing and Coran grabs a tube and a scalpel. At this point, Hunk had begun to carry Lance out the room. 

‘He had seen enough today’ Hunk thought as he struggles with Lance on his shoulder. That was when it hits Lance like a ton of bricks. The nausea had crept upon him silently, giving him a few warning moments all of the contents in his stomach that would leave violently. All that Lance can do was to watch Coran. All Lance could do was watch his entire life fall apart in a matter of second.

**Author's Note:**

> So how did you like it?  
> Do leave comments and kudos because they make really happy. :)
> 
>  
> 
> Until Next Time  
> [Tumblr](http://stop-klancing-around.tumblr.com)


End file.
